The Roof Ridge Beam

The rafters bear most of the weight of the roof.

The roof ridge beam.

Rafter to ridge beam connection framing roof ceiling construction structural ridge beam absolute deflection in a ridge beam structural ridge beam tricks of the trade. A simple rafter roof consists of rafters that the rafter foot rest on horizontal wall plates on top of each wall. A structural ridge beam is a horizontal beam placed at the peak or ridge of a roof and is designed to carry much of the live and dead loads or weight of the roof structure by itself. Here s a picture of a gable style shed using a ridge beam.

Ridge beams are required by code if the roof slope is less than 3 in 12 irc section r802 3. The top ends of the rafters often meet at a ridge beam but may butt directly to another rafter to form a pair of rafters called a couple. I always always build trusses. Timber steel framing manual single span ridge beam.

Glulam ridge beam span table elcho beams tables golagoon. A ridge board is a non structural member that serves as a prop for opposing rafters to rest against and connect to. The loads on the ridge beam are carried by vertical posts at the beam ends down through the building structural walls to the building foundation. Now if you have done any looking around this site you ll quickly see that i am not a fan of using a ridge beam in shed construction.

With this design the ridge beam bears much more load weight than the ridge board on a standard stick framed roof. B a ridge beam supported by not less than 89 mm length of bearing. Yes either a ridge board or a ridge beam is necessary and required by the building code where roof rafters meet at the the center of their span. A ridge board or beam runs through the tops of rafters or trusses from end to end along a gable roof tying those framing members together.

The ridge board holds them in place. Framing in a ridge beam in shed roof construction is not hard. A timber frame roof has rafters and a ridge beam as with stick framing but the ridge is a large structural beam that the rafters sit on top of or sometimes fit into notches cut into the beam.